The Environment Protection Authority of New South Wales said it fined Carnival Australia A$15,000 for one of its ships using bunkers with nearly three times the amount of excess sulfur at Sydney’s White Bay Cruise Terminal.
Carnival is appealing the fine imposed on the P&O ship Pacific Jewel when it docked in February.
Carnival said it took the environmental agency 20 days to test the fuel samples and did not consider all the available technical data which proves the ship switched to lower sulfur content within allowable time limit shortly after berthing at the terminal.
Under new rules all ships docking in Sydney must revert to sulfur content of no more than 0.10% within one hour of arrival and until one hour before departure.
"The ship’s crew had started changing over from using high sulfur fuel shortly after the ship had berthed at White Bay, but the sample showed that the fuel being used in the ship’s engine during the EPA’s inspection did not meet the low sulfur fuel requirements," said EPA acting director Greg Sheehy.
"The EPA is running an extensive compliance campaign to ensure cruise ships are complying and the inspections will continue. We are also investigating the results of samples from some other ships which may require regulatory action."
The cruise industry has been given up to three years to install scrubbers to comply with upcoming sulphur rules in Sydney.
